Bridge on Airline Road in Anderson patched, back open

ANDERSON COUNTY - A bridge on Airline Road in Anderson is back open after crews repaired a large hole in the northbound lane.

The bridge is 50 feet long and stretches over Beaver Creek. The hole was reported late Wednesday by an Anderson County resident.

A crew from the county's Roads and Bridges Division inspected the damage and found that the hole was 7 feet deep and 10 feet wide across the lane.

"It was a cavern, really," said Judy Shelato, a county engineer. "The only thing really supporting vehicles was about 2 feet of asphalt and rock bridging the gap. It's scary when we find things like that."

The hole was fixed with "flowable fill" — a mixture that includes cement and sand. A crew paved over the patch with a layer of asphalt and reopened the bridge late Thursday afternoon.

Tony Owens of the county's road maintenance department said the final cost of the bridge repair was not known Thursday, but would amount to less than $2,500.